Posted: Tuesday 29th July 2008

Reviewed by Jason Palmer

Mike Myers returns to our screens as Pitka, an American raised abroad who studies under the tutorship of Guru Tugginmypuddah (Ben Kingsley). His dream is to eclipse Deepak Choprah as the worlds greatest and most highly regarded Guru so he decides to return to the United States where his gifts can be used best. He is soon hired by NHL outfit the Toronto Maple Leafs managed by Jane Bullard (Jessica Alba) and coached by Punch Cherkov (Verne Troyer). Their star player Darren Roanoke (Romany Malco from The 40 Year Old Virgin) is on the brink of self-destruction because his wife has left him for rising French Hockey supremo Jacques Grande (Justin Timberlake). Can Guru Pitka rise to the challenge and help Darren and the Maple Leafs in time whilst trying not to give in to his romantic urges towards Jane?

The Love Guru has its moments. Any fan of Mike Myers will enjoy elements of this zany comedy but ultimately you will be left expecting a whole lot more. The Guru Pitka character has taken four years for Mike Myers to perfect yet the end product feels like a rushed, under wriiten after-thought which lacks the genius and charm of his other major comedy roles Austin Powers and Wayne Campbell. It doesnt help that his accent changes throughout the movie too, a kind on Anglo-Indian-African mess of stereotypical proportions. But that aside, The Love Guru basically doesn't have the appeal of his other, more successful characters and the story doesnt draw you in.

There are a few laugh out loud moments which deserve recognition. The Guru's Sutras and life lessons provide a lot of the films funnier moments and cleverly poke fun at the self-help industry in the USA. Myers also has un-doubted chemistry with Mini-Me himself, Verne Troyer and they work well onscreen together. Justin Timberlake hands in a competant, amusing take as Grande the smug Frenchman who steals Roanoke's wife and the countless cameos by famous celebrities are always fun to witness.

The bad side however is that the premise is under-whelming and it heavily outweighs the genuinely funny moments. Mix into that some pretty bad one liners and a bizzare need for Myers to explain his jokes after he has told the punchline and The Love Guru turns out to be a very average effort. I'm not sure what convinced Academy Award winner Ben Kingsley to show up in this movie but his character in particular was not funny in the slightest. And what of Jessica Alba? She has real star potential but recently she's done a great job in finding some of the worst movies in Hollywood to put her name to. Good Luck Chuck was awful and her role in this isn't much better.

As a fan of Mike Myers I was genuinely disappointed with The Love Guru; a movie that should have made me laugh long and hard throughout its very short 87 minute running time. There are funny bits present but not nearly enough of them to rescue this from being pedestrian fare. He would have been better off spending those four years perfecting another couple of Austin Powers movies instead. This is a real missed oppourtunity for Mike Myers as the US Box Office takings have proved and I can't see The Love Guru doing much better on these shores either.